Ten years ago this week, Google opened its doors in Montreal, drawn here by some very talented developers who didn’t want to leave their charming city – and the community they were a part of – in la belle province. In the decade since, Google’s office of engineers, developers and digital marketing experts has grown up right alongside the city’s vibrant tech and startup community.

As Montreal's tech community has grown, so has its entrepreneurial spirit and startup culture. Today, Montreal is home to some of the most promising startups in Canada. That’s why we’re excited to announce that working with Notman House – one of Canada’s leading startup incubators – the Google for Entrepreneurs Tech Hub Network is expanding to Montreal, making it the 9th city in the network, the 2nd in Canada, and the 1st in a French-speaking community.

Tech hubs like Notman House have sprung up in cities across the globe, drawing on shared expertise and resources to help developers and entrepreneurs launch new ideas and turn them into thriving young companies. Google’s Tech Hub Network is the first formal network of its kind, and at a little over a year old, we are excited to link aspiring entrepreneurs and startup founders from across the continent to one another, and to open new doors to mentorship, investment and growth.

For startups working with Notman House, the Tech Hub Network puts new resources at their fingertips, including funding, training and mentorship opportunities, and access to Google programs and products throughout the network including:

An annual Demo Day where startups from the network come to Silicon Valley and pitch to investors;

The Google for Entrepreneurs Global Passport, where entrepreneurs from each hub can work for free at spaces designated at any other hub in the network.

As a former startup ourselves, a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation is in our DNA. With Notman House and our Google for Entrepreneurs programs, we hope Montreal’s world-class startup community will grow that much faster, building transformative products and companies that will take the world by storm.Posted by Shibl Mourad, Engineering Director for Google Montreal

Today, we’re introducing something new. It’s called Inbox. Years in the making, Inbox is by the same people who brought you Gmail, but it’s not Gmail: it’s a completely different type of inbox, designed to focus on what really matters.

Email started simply as a way to send digital notes around the office. But fast-forward 30 years and with just the phone in your pocket, you can use email to contact virtually anyone in the world…from your best friend to the owner of that bagel shop you discovered last week.

With this evolution comes new challenges: we get more email now than ever, important information is buried inside messages, and our most important tasks can slip through the cracks—especially when we’re working on our phones. For many of us, dealing with email has become a daily chore that distracts from what we really need to do—rather than helping us get those things done.

If this all sounds familiar, then Inbox is for you. Or more accurately, Inbox works for you. Here are some of the ways Inbox is at your service:

Bundles: stay organized automatically
Inbox expands upon the categories we introduced in Gmail last year, making it easy to deal with similar types of mail all at once. For example, all your purchase receipts or bank statements are neatly grouped together so that you can quickly review and then swipe them out of the way. You can even teach Inbox to adapt to the way you work by choosing which emails you’d like to see grouped together.

Highlights: the important info at a glance
Inbox highlights the key information from important messages, such as flight itineraries, event information, and photos and documents emailed to you by friends and family. Inbox will even display useful information from the web that wasn’t in the original email, such as the real-time status of your flights and package deliveries. Highlights and Bundles work together to give you just the information you need at a glance.

Reminders, Assists, and Snooze: your to-do’s on your own terms
Inbox makes it easy to focus on your priorities by letting you add your own Reminders, from picking up the dry cleaning to giving your parents a call. No matter what you need to remember, your inbox becomes a centralized place to keep track of the things you need to get back to.

And speaking of to-do’s, Inbox helps you cross those off your list by providing Assists—handy pieces of information you may need to get the job done. For example, if you write a Reminder to call the hardware store, Inbox will supply the store’s phone number and tell you if it's open. Assists work for your email, too. If you make a restaurant reservation online, Inbox adds a map to your confirmation email. Book a flight online, and Inbox gives a link to check-in.

Of course, not everything needs to be done right now. Whether you’re in an inconvenient place or simply need to focus on something else first, Inbox lets you Snooze away emails and Reminders. You can set them to come back at another time or when you get to a specific location, like your home or your office.

Get started with Inbox
Starting today, we’re sending out the first round of invitations to give Inbox a try, and each new user will be able to invite their friends. If Inbox can’t arrive soon enough for you, you can email us at inbox@google.com to get an invitation as soon as more become available.

When you start using Inbox, you’ll quickly see that it doesn’t feel the same as Gmail—and that’s the point. Gmail’s still there for you, but Inbox is something new. It’s a better way to get back to what matters, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Editor's Note: This blog post has been cross posted from the Android Blog

It’s Tuesday and you might be sitting in the office, in desperate need of a way to stay motivated for the week ahead. How about a playlist for staying focused at work? Starting today, it’s easier to find the right music for every mood with an updated Google Play Music app. This is our first integration with Songza, a company we acquired this summer that gives you expert curated music stations based on what you’re doing.

If you’re a Google Play Music subscriber, next time you open the app you’ll be prompted to play music for a time of day, mood or activity. Choose an activity to get options for several music stations to make whatever you’re doing even better—whether it’s a station for a morning workout, songs to relieve stress during traffic, or the right mix for cooking with friends. Each station has been handcrafted—song by song—by our team of music experts (dozens of DJs, musicians, music critics and ethnomusicologists) to give you the exact right song for the moment.

You can download these music stations to listen when you’re offline, see what song is up next, and add, remove or re-order them to suit your taste. Or you can start a new station based on any song in the mix. You can also search for a particular station you want or activity you want to find music for.

As part of this update, we’ve also redesigned the “Listen Now” page so you can more easily discover new music. Now you’ll see cards for all of your recently played music, new releases you might be interested in, and radio stations based on what you like to listen to. You’ll also notice that the new app uses Google’s material design, with bigger images, bolder colors and slick transitions.

The new activity-based station recommendations are available today for subscribers in the U.S. and Canada (Android, iOS and the web). The redesigned “Listen Now” page is available in all 45 countries where Google Play Music is available (for Android, iOS and the web).

With more than 30 million songs to choose from on Google Play, it can be hard to figure out what to listen to. Sometimes you want to build your own mix to rock out with your friends, and sometimes you want to sit back, press play and hear something completely new. Whether you’re at work or on vacation, we’ll find you the best music station to make the experience better.

Posted by Brandon Bilinski and Elias Roman, Google Play Music product managers

Anyone with a camera and access to the internet can create a YouTube video. The
online platform is a great one to share ideas, commentary, presentations, or funny clips
of your pet skateboarding or howling to their favourite song. However, there’s much
more to YouTube than cute puppy videos and groups of people doing the Harlem Shake.
For the second year, Buffer Festival shows just how much creativity and artistic talent
can be found online. From amazing animation and special effects, to educational
content or engaging original music, YouTube has become a platform for “citizens” to
showcase their talents with a wide and far-reaching audience. From October 17-19,
some of the world’s most-watched (and loved) YouTube filmmakers will convene in
Toronto to celebrate and share their work with each other and their fans.

Attendees will get the chance to see their favourite YouTubers’ work before they hit the
digital screens - feature-length screenings will take place at high-profile theatres in the
city, including the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Scotiabank, and the John W. H. Bassett Theatres.
Created by Canadian talent Corey Vidal and his company, ApprenticeA Productions, the
three-day festival is a digital video lover’s dream. In fact, New Form Digital, a joint
venture between Ron Howard, Discovery Communications and Brian Grazer, will be
screening a series of shorts by commissioned YouTubers during the festival. As well,
Lucasfilm is presenting the Star Wars Fan Films Showcase at Buffer Festival, offering an
exclusive sneak peek into the return of the Star Wars Fan Film Awards. New short films
by YouTubers Vidal, WheezyWaiter and Olan Rogers will premiere at the screening,
along with fan films from around the world. YouTube is a force to be reckoned with in
the entertainment mix, and some of Hollywood’s finest have taken notice.

Clash at the Cantina was shot on the Lucasfilm lot at the Disney studios in
Burbank, California.

One of the festival’s biggest highlights is the black-tie gala and red carpet event. Fans
will get a chance to take pictures with and get autographs from YouTube stars as they
walk the red carpet. A collection of the best videos shown throughout the festival will be
played during this formal event. Yes, black-tie and YouTube do belong together in the
same sentence!

The festival comprises themed nights highlighting YouTube content across broad genres,
from LGBT+ to Animation. The remainder will focus on the works of some YouTube
celebrities, including Shay Carl, Charles Trippy, Charles McDonnell, Toby Turner
(Tobuscus), Rhett and Link, Epic Meal Time, VSauce3, among many others.

Good things happen when everybody’s invited. A few years ago, we had the thought that phones (and stuff that hadn’t even been invented yet like tablets and smart watches) would be way more interesting if everyone could build new things together. So we created Android as an open platform, and put it out there for everyone to imagine, invent, make, or buy whatever they wanted.

Since then, all kinds of people—from companies big and small to folks on Kickstarter, kids in schools, and crazy smart developers—have been innovating faster, together, more than we ever could alone. And the best part is that every time someone new joins in, things get more interesting, unexpected, and wonderful for all of us.

Getting everyone in on the party is the same spirit behind Android One—an effort recently launched in India (coming to other countries soon) to make great smartphones available to the billions of people around the world who aren’t yet online. It’s also why we’re excited about Lollipop, our newest software release, which is designed to meet the diverse needs of the billion-plus people who already use Android today.

Joining the party: Android 5.0 Lollipop
As previewed at Google I/O, Lollipop is our largest, most ambitious release on Android with over 5,000 new APIs for developers. Lollipop is designed to be flexible, to work on all your devices and to be customized for you the way you see fit. And just like Android has always been, it’s designed to be shared.
Lollipop is made for a world where moving throughout the day means interacting with a bunch of different screens—from phones and tablets to TVs. With more devices connecting together, your expectation is that things just work. With Lollipop, it’s easier than ever to pick up where you left off, so the songs, photos, apps, and even recent searches from one of your Android devices can be immediately enjoyed across all the other ones.

As you switch from one screen to another, the experience should feel the same. So Lollipop has a consistent design across devices—an approach we call Material Design. Now content responds to your touch, or even your voice, in more intuitive ways, and transitions between tasks are more fluid.

Lollipop also gives you more control over your device. You can now adjust your settings so that only certain people and notifications can get through, for example, when you’re out to dinner or in the middle of an important meeting. And when an important notification does come through, you can see it directly from the lockscreen.

And because we’re using our devices a lot more, there’s a new battery saver feature that extends the life of your device by up to 90 minutes—helpful if you’re far from a power outlet. We’ve enabled multiple user accounts and guest user mode for keeping your personal stuff private. And you can now secure your device with a PIN, password, pattern, or even by pairing your phone to a trusted device like your watch or car with Smart Lock. But this is just a small taste of Lollipop. Learn more on android.com.

Meet the Nexus family, now running Lollipop
Advances in computing are driven at the intersection of hardware and software. That's why we’ve always introduced Nexus devices alongside our platform releases. Rather than creating software in the abstract, we work with hardware partners to build Nexus devices to help push the boundaries of what's possible. Nexus devices also serve as a reference for the ecosystem as they develop on our newest release. And for Lollipop, we have a few new Nexus treats to share with you.

First, with Motorola, we developed the Nexus 6. This new phone has a contoured aluminum frame, a 6-inch Quad HD display and a 13 megapixel camera. The large screen is complemented by dual front-facing stereo speakers that deliver high-fidelity sound, making it as great for movies and gaming as it is for doing work. It also comes with a Turbo Charger, so you can get up to six hours of use with only 15 minutes of charge.

Next, a new tablet built in partnership with HTC. Nexus 9, with brushed metal sides and 8.9-inch screen, is small enough to easily carry around in one hand, yet big enough to work on. And since more and more people want to have the same simple experience they have on their tablets when they have to do real work, we designed a keyboard folio that magnetically attaches to the Nexus 9, folds into two different angles and rests securely on your lap like a laptop.

Finally, we’re releasing the first device running Android TV: Nexus Player, a collaboration with Asus, is a streaming media player for movies, music and videos. It's also a first-of-its-kind Android gaming device. With Nexus Player you can play Android games on your HDTV with a gamepad, then keep playing on your phone while you're on the road. Nexus Player is Google Cast Ready so you can cast your favorite entertainment from almost any Chromebook or Android or iOS phone or tablet to your TV.

Nexus 9 and Nexus Player will be available for pre-order on October 17. Nexus 9 will be in stores starting November 3. Nexus 6 will be available for pre-order in late October and in stores in November—with options for an unlocked version though Play store, or a monthly contract or installment plan through various carriers. Specific carrier rollout will be subject to certification completion and will vary. Check out google.com/nexus for more details on availability.

Android 5.0 Lollipop, which comes on Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player, will also be available on Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks.

The party’s just getting started
With this latest release of Android Lollipop, we're excited to continue working with our developer community, hardware partners, and all of you. More ideas and more creators is what gets us all to better ideas faster. And since everyone's invited to the party, we hope you'll join in the fun by creating and sharing an Android character that captures a little bit of who you are—one of a kind. Enjoy!

Coast-to-coast, there’s now more of Canada’s amazing national and provincial parks to explore online. Today, Google Maps introduces over fifty new destinations to virtually visit in Street View. From Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to the Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy, Canadians and people from around the world can now take in more of this country’s natural beauty in Google Maps.

For Hannah Johnston, growing up in Ottawa there weren’t a lot of opportunities to learn to code at school. But after attending an Actua summer science camp, she knew she had definitely caught the bug – a computer bug, of course! Today she’s an interaction designer at Google, helping design an internet that’s easy for everyone to search and understand.

What if we could inspire 100,000 young Canadians like Hannah to think about how technology can change the world, and then help them learn the skills to make it happen?

Today, in the midst of 3D selfies and motion-controlled video games, we’re excited to announce the launch of Codemakers, a new project led by Actua and supported with a $1.5 million grant from Google.org. Over the next 3 years, Codemakers will set out to deliver 1 million face-to-face hours of computer science and technology learning in Canada to spark the next generation of creative, young code makers and inventors.

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, works with kids creating their own video games at today’s launch of the Codemakers partnership between Google Canada and Actua.

Working together, we’re going to pair up the creative minds of Canadian Google engineers with Actua’s top computer science thinkers to design a hands-on computer science experience for kids. Using maker spaces and hacking approaches, Codemakers will explore the building blocks of computer hardware, the fundamentals of data and coding, and how to put these fundamentals straight to work doing things like designing apps from scratch.

With more than 20 years experience breaking down barriers to help youth learn about science and technology, Actua and its network of members will bring Codemakers to life in club programs, summer camps and school workshops in every region of Canada and in particular, to underserved youth populations, including Aboriginal youth, girls, New Canadians, and young people facing significant socioeconomic challenges.

Together, we’re going to help give young Canadians the technical skills, expertise and confidence to grab their future in both hands, follow their passions and start building their biggest and best ideas.Posted by Steve Woods, Engineering Director for Canada